A Textbook of Life Handed Down by True Parents
Rev. Sun Myung Moon
Founder, Family Federation for World Peace and Unification
Draft of English Speech given by Mrs. Hak Ja Han Moon
World Tour 1999
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. I am deeply grateful that you have taken the time from your busy schedules to help me make today's gathering such a success. Our theme for today is "The Journey of Life."
Today the world is lost in great confusion and cries out in agony. We face endless conflict as an individual, in our families, in our nations and the world. As an individual, we are confronted with inner turmoil between our mind and body. Our families are plagued with the moral decadence of out young people and the breakdown of traditional families. Historical rivalries lead to distrust and even war among our nations, fueling the embers of uncertainty and hopelessness in the world, The solution to all these problems lies in experiencing an ideal love relationship with God.
Throughout history, humankind has sought to answer the basic question: Why are we born? Some have concluded that they were born for the sake of their country. Others have decided that they were born for the sake of their parents. Still others believe they were born for their own sake. People of faith believe they are born for the sake of God.
Yet, it is not enough to say that God created the universe for the sole benefit of human beings, or even for Himself. The creation of humankind involved the cooperation of many beings and elements. Although each had its own inherent purpose, they had to be aligned to initiate the creative process. God's purpose of creating, the angel's purpose of assisting, nature's purpose for providing the material, and even the human purpose for being created must all be consistent. All must be pleased. There must be some continuous content that will be pleasing to God, to the angels, to the rest of creation, and to human beings themselves.
This common content must be something that gives greater happiness and joy the longer it is possessed. It should be something that once possessed, a person, would never want to let go. It cannot be external in nature. It must be something internal and invisible. Things like knowledge, money, power are merely collateral conditions that are needed in people's lives. We are not born into the world for the purpose of possessing them. Such external things may exist in a reciprocal relationship with humankind, but only temporarily, not eternally.
God has no need for money, If Almighty God ever needed money, He could create as much as He desired. Also, God is the root of all knowledge since He created the universe through certain principles and laws. Furthermore, the Creator, God, is the subject of power, so He has no need to seek power.
So what then is this common content? It is something that cannot be successfully pursued through human effort alone. This is because human effort cannot control the fundamental origin of life. This content must be something capable of directing the motivation, course, and even the final destination of each person's life.
From this perspective, this common content can only be true love. Human beings are born in love, and are destined to go the path of love. People even die for love. This shows that love is more valuable than life itself. Moreover, we see that love precedes life. That is why people willingly offer even their lives for the sake of love.
Love is eternal. If we look at novels, poems and other works of literature, we see how authors frequently use expressions such as 'unchanging love' and 'my eternal love.' Clearly, human beings, are not satisfied with momentary or finite. Our desire is for love that is eternal.
Love has the power to render God helpless. Even God is vulnerable to love. Almighty God cannot resist breaking into a big smile when He smells the fragrance of love from human beings. God enjoys love stories, too. So how much more would He be pleased when love is actually practiced?
Each organ in our body was created for the sake of love. For example, the eyes were obviously created for the purpose of sight. But, to see what? The eyes were created specifically to look for love, which is the common theme among all beings. The nose was made to smell, but specifically to smell the fragrance of love, Similarly, our ears were created to hear the sounds of love. Among all the sounds we hear, the one sound that we never get tired of hearing is the sound of someone saying, "I love you. This is as true for senior citizens as it is for young people.
Love is the only subject that can bring all beings into a state of mutual attraction, Here, love refers to true love, which every being in the entire universe would welcome. True love is the type of love that is publicly endorsed by God, the angelic world, the rest of creation and all people. If we were to cover the entire universe with a blanket of love, then no being would want to crawl out from under that blanket. From this perspective, it is clear that the creation of the universe and life itself originated from true love. When human beings reach the state of consciousness in which they are able to love the universe, all the, doors of the universe open to them. For example, I am just a tiny being occupying this space right here. But centered on love, I can reciprocate a relationship with a being of any size or magnitude. Let us say that God is an extremely large being. Then by the power of love, I can rise to a position reciprocal to that of the Absolute God, This is possible because love is an attribute of God.
Thus, a person who recognizes and keeps God's covenant of love can enjoy freedom anywhere in the universe. A person who is intoxicated with God's love can examine a single grain of sand for a thousand years without ever being bored, Such a person will see light radiating from his own hand. When lying alone at night, he feels that he is lying on a golden bed and radiating golden light. This may sound fantastic, but it is true. If you reach this state, you can stand on a hilltop and feel that all creation is cheering to welcome you. Have you ever experienced this? The thought that we are born into a universe of love not only gives us a feeling of infinite happiness, it also makes us want to boast to the world, "Hey, look at me!" God was working in His laboratory, and He made the most ideal, most sensational discovery . . . That discovery is each one of us.
Because we are created in a position reciprocal to God's love, any act of self-destruction is the greatest of sins. Conversely, loving and protecting oneself are acts of great goodness. That is why suicide is the greatest sin. Suicide contributes to the breakdown of the universe.
A person might be imprisoned and tortured to the point of vomiting blood. But if, in that moment, he feels God's loving embrace, his suffering becomes the catalyst that allows God to embrace him with a love that penetrates to the marrow of his bones. If this person perceives his suffering in such a way, be would be able to face even death with happiness.
By this example, we see that anyone who lives within the power of true love is a person of great strength. Even if someone were to offer this person a country or the world, he would not be swayed, Even Satan would be forced to surrender before such a person, Such an individual, called by God to represent all humankind centering on this cosmic love, would be the Messiah. Jesus is that representative, We can never find this cosmic love without going through the Messiah. It is reasonable to say that all people on earth will have to follow the Messiah. Jesus said: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me." (John 14:6) The meaning of this would be clearer if the word love were added: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life, and the love, no one comes to the Father, but by me.
We are born through our parent's love and, thus, become the first central owners of that love. We can conclude that our parents loved each other for the purpose of creating each one of us. Because of this, children can claim a position of equality with their father and mother. A child may say to his parents; "Without me you will be unhappy. I have to be here for you to be happy, don't I?" And his parents will have to agree.
In the same way, children will be unhappy without their parents. This is because the parents are the cause and the children are the result. The parents and children are one, centering on love. Cause and effect become one to form a substantial realm of love. This is a principle of the universe.
The Divine Principle of the Unification Church teaches that energy is produced when a subject partner and object partner become one. In a family, parents hold the position of the subject partner and children hold the position of object partner. Once they reciprocate in relationship of love they become one entity -- a true family. This entity then becomes a new object partner, which can enter into unity with a larger subject partner. If God is that subject partner, then the parent-child unity becomes one with God, We can also say that when a perfect subject-object relationship is formed with God, centering on His ideal of love, God and humankind can exist in total oneness. When the realm of love between God and humanity becomes a reality the light of love will shine throughout the universe as bright and constant as the sun.
Not only is each person a life-connecting entity in whom the lives of both parents are brought together as one, we are also partners in our parents' love. We are one with their love. Furthermore, we are one with their ideals, including happiness and peace. For a parent, the joy of the worldly success cannot be compared to the joy of reuniting with a lost child. This shows that the child embodies the highest ideals of the parents.
Each person is connected to the life-line, love-line and ideal-line of one's parents, and no one can sever these lines. Even God cannot sever them, nor can the universe. In fact, all the forces of the universe work together to safeguard these lines.
For this reason, wherever the child goes the mother and father will follow. Even in the spirit world, your parents will always want to be with you. Therefore, it is a terrible sin for a person to dislike being accompanied by his parents. Such behavior tears the universe apart. When a person doesn't like to go with his parents, it means that he is already moving away from the principle and toward the Fall.
Thus, acts of filial piety, such as loving and caring for our parents as we would ourselves, are the most precious things. That is why there is a saying, "Good fortune comes to a harmonious family."
On the other hand, when parents divorce, they might as well take a knife and cut their children in half. The law of the universe does not allow such an act. Parents who disobey this law will meet with misfortune wherever they go, and will never find happiness.
Each person comes into the world through three sets of parents. The first parent is the material world. Elements from the world of matter combine to form each person as the center of the material world and as a complex material being. Thus, it can be said that these physical elements themselves are our ancestors that gave birth to us. On the other hand, the material world is an extension of us. The universe is created so that matter can settle only in the ideal of love. It is only in the ideal of love that all cells can live in tranquility. But this is all ruined whenever a person becomes angry.
The second set of parents are our own physical parents, By giving birth to us, our parents gave us a particular form, and to this extent they are the masters of our lives. However, no matter how hard they may try, these parents cannot be the masters of our love.
The master of love is God. In this context, God exists so that love can be expanded into the entire universe and be made eternal. Because God is the subject partner of love, He becomes the parent centering on love. That is why God is our third parent, So we have three sets of parents.
Human life can be divided into three periods: life in the womb of about ten months, a physical life of about a hundred years, and life in the spiritual world that lasts tens of thousands of years into eternity.
If we look at our own faces, we see three stages, the mouth, the nose and the eyes. These reflect the three periods of our lives. The mouth symbolizes the period in the womb, which is a world of material. The nose symbolizes the period on Earth, which is the world of humanity, The eyes symbolize the period in heaven, which is the spiritual world.
To the fetus, the aquatic world of its mother's womb is a world of total freedom. Interestingly, although it is constrained in the small confines of the placenta, the fetus feels completely free. In the placenta, it can't stretch its legs as much as it would like, and the fetus relies on an umbilical cord to breathe and receive nutrients for survival since its nose and mouth are both useless in this world. Nevertheless, to the fetus, the world in the womb is one of complete freedom.
At the time of birth, do you think the fetus would say, I am going into the world to eat delicious honey, cake, and rice with my mouth?" No. The opposite is the case. It would say, "Oh no! I wish I don't have to go." However, even if the fetus doesn't want to leave its mother's womb, when the time comes, it has no choice. As the water (amniotic fluid) flows out, the fetus follows soon thereafter. This is what happens in a normal birth.
As soon as the baby is born, it begins to cry. At the same time, it starts to breathe through its nose and becomes linked to the second world, the world of air.
As the baby leaves the womb to join the world of air, the umbilical cord is destroyed along with the water sac and everything it needed in the world of the womb. With the death (destruction) of these things, the baby is born into the bosom of its new mother, the planet Earth. Once born, the baby begins to eat with its mouth and breathe with its nose. The food we eat on Earth only nourishes our physical bodies, but it does not contain the essential element of life. This life element is none other than love. Thus, while we are in this world, we also need to breathe the air of love. We need to inhale this air of love from our mother and father.
A newborn baby automatically searches for its mother's nipple, following the vibrations of her love. Whether she is beautiful or ugly, it does not matter to the baby. The only thing that matters is that she is its mother. It is a sacred scene manifested in limitless variety. We are born in love and we grow by receiving love. Each of us is the substantial fruit of our parents' love. The nature of our parents' love is made visible in us. Parents love their children, because children are the fruit of their love. Boundless love can multiply from this fruit. In this way, we are linked to the love of the individual, family, tribe, nation, world, universe, and ultimately the essential love of God.
Once we are born, our parents take responsibility to see that we become good human beings during our life on Earth. Our parents act on behalf of the world, the nation, and the family to teach and provide for us. We receive material things and education from our parents so that we may become complete as individuals. Based on this, we then become linked to a horizontal foundation of love, which is marriage.
Parents take responsibility for us until we marry. After marriage, we inherit the love shared by our mother and father. When we marry and start raising our own children, we begin to understand how much our parents loved us and thus come to inherit the parental love. In this way, the individual becomes capable of receiving and giving love completely. This is how each of us matures as a complete man or woman.
We are born and mature in the vertical love of our parents, and later we engage in horizontal love. This is the only way we can find the integrated realm of love. Heaven and earth together form a spherical world, covering all the dimension of top and bottom, left and right, as well as front and back. When the vertical and horizontal love relationships ate linked, they interact, revolve, become integrated, and finally emerge as a single center of harmony. Once the vertical love of heaven and earth is firmly established as the axis internally and externally, then the need for horizontal love arises. This is adolescence.
During adolescence, even the sight of an autumn leaf blowing along the ground can seem inspiring. Girls who used to be so reserved when they were younger suddenly start doing things to their hair, putting on make-up and trying on all sorts of clothes and trinkets. Their interests expand as well. These are horizontal phenomena of love,
So, we are travelers on the path of life. The most important thing on this path is to experience and embody vertical and horizontal love. We need to build a family centering on the love of true parents, true husbands and wives, true brothers and sisters, and true sons and daughters, Next, we need to expand ourselves horizontally, multiplying into many families in all directions. When these families, linking the horizontal and vertical, manifest themselves as true families connected to the levels of tribe, society, nation, and world; then, this world, inter-linked by true love, will be the Kingdom of Heaven.
When a husband and wife love each other, it symbolizes the planting of God. Parents represent God's original position. Here, the husband and wife each embody different sides of God. Also, each child is like a small God. Since God is the original entity of true love, when the various members of the family link themselves to true love, they become one body with God. Here, parents are the living embodiment of God representing Him. Husband and wife each represent God, and children represent Him as well. All three generations, centering on true love, stand in the position of God.
This is why all members of the family -- parents, husbands and wives, and children -- need true love. A family formed in this way, centering on true love, is the foundation for the Kingdom of Heaven. Unless we first establish such a foundation, the Kingdom of Heaven can never be established. This is the formula. The family is the center of the entire physical universe. People today do not realize that their families represent their country, world and universe. They do not know that their families are the center. Breaking apart a family is an act of rebellion against the country, world, and universe.
Because a perfect family is the foundation for a perfect universe, a person who loves the universe as she loves her family can travel freely everywhere, In such a case, God, as the parent of the entire universe, sits in the central position to these manifold relationships of love.
When a man and woman become one centering on true love, they form an ideal couple, and build an ideal family. By doing so, they stand in a position representing God and thus are connected to everything in the universe. If this happens, then all of God's possession becomes theirs, Think how wonderful that would be! This is the reason we naturally desire to have dominion over all creation.
Men and women come together as pairs to build families, societies, nations, and the world. Thus, the family centering on one man and one woman must be the model for the tribe. This tribe, in turn, must be the model for the nation. Families must strive to achieve the ideal family, tribe and nation. Therefore, until ideal families appear, ideal nations will never emerge.
Respected guests! The greatness of true love is that it enables us to become God's object partners and also enable God to become us. The Bible speaks of God being in us and Jesus being in us. This is similar to the idea that the parent is in the child, the grandchild is in the grandparent, and the grandparent is in the grandchild.
A grandmother and grandfather should bind their hearts together centering on their grandchildren. This is necessary so that the vertical line of love can have a beginning. Also, grandchildren must become one with their grandparents. Grandparents are in the same position as God, so we should attend them as we would attend God. Grandchildren will not be able to find vertical axis of love without doing this.
After the formation of this axis, the horizontal can be developed. The horizontal can be connected to all directions, but the vertical has only one direction. The horizontal can turn North, South, East or West; it has a range of 360 degrees. The vertical can move centering on one point only and cannot be split.
Our first task is to create mind and body unity, centering on love. Then, we need to know how to love the spiritual world, which is the vertical world centered on God. Furthermore, if in the future a central country emerges, we should love humanity centering on that country. When we love the spiritual world and the whole of humankind by means of sacrifice, service, and dedication, we can automatically become the central figures who can have dominion over the two worlds, and make them into one. Then God will surely dwell there.
The entire spiritual world, combined with the entire physical universe, is called the cosmos. The spiritual world and the universe yearn for the unification of the cosmos centering on true love. True love can unify the cosmos. True love can transform all families into ideal families and makes them one. Thus, we can conclude that true love is the only thing that humanity needs absolutely, whether we are alive on the Earth or in the spiritual world.
All beings are attracted to true love. Animals and plants are attracted to the one who possesses true love. They want such a person to be their master. Every being is trying to become one with the person who has true love. The desire of all things is to be closer, to dwell together with, and to be under the dominion of a person who possesses true love.
We can conclude, therefore, that nothing in this world is more precious than a true person who possesses true love.
Human beings have no wings. If we want to fly farther than any insect or bird, or circle the planet faster than an airplane, we cannot be confined to our substantial physical bodies. Even the strongest runner cannot run for very long. As the highest being in creation, humans are in a reciprocal position equal to God's. So human beings should be able to act even more quickly than electricity or light, which travels at three hundred thousand kilometers per second. It is our spiritual selves that make such a thing possible. I can be in Seoul, and my spiritual self can travel to New York and be back in an instant, faster than a bolt of lightning. The spiritual self is capable of acting at the speed of thought.
The fastest action in the world is not electromagnetic waves. It is love. Love travels faster and flies higher than anything in the world. When two people at opposite ends of the Earth love each other, they pull toward each other from across the globe. That is the power of love.
In the world of God's original ideal, a person who has experienced true love has the ability and authority to possess instantly anything God wants.
People need to experience such a state while on earth. One can rise to this position only if the physical and spirit self becomes one while establishing a love relationship with God, centered on the true family. We can feel God's love by loving our countrymen, the people of the world, and creation. Each of us, regardless of nationality, must develop the heart to love people of all races. We should love not just people but even the smallest microorganism. This love has to spring naturally from within. When a flower blooms, its beauty and fragrance come naturally. The blossom of love has to bloom in the same way. The fragrance of love should fill the air naturally.
To do this, we need to receive the nutrients that make it possible for the blossom of love to bloom. In the same way that plants receive nutrients from the soil and sun, we receive nutrients through our physical bodies and spirit selves. We receive vitality elements through our physical bodies, and then we receive living spirit elements through our spirit selves.
This is how we become beings who are totally equipped to love and develop the ability to fly anywhere. When this happens, the solar system and the entire universe become the stage of our activity.
When human beings finish their physical lives, they go through a second birth. This is death. The place into which we are born a second time is the spiritual world. We go into the spiritual world and, on behalf of the entire universe, receive love from God, our third parent. That is to say, we receive ideal love. So in the spirit world, unification is inevitable.
At the moment of our death, we kick away the second world, the world of air, and fully connect to the third world, the world of love. We leave behind the love of our physical parents and siblings and enter the spiritual world where we eventually enter the sphere of love in which we merge with the original body of God. The seed comes from the original body, so it has to bear fruit and return to the original body.
The spiritual world's atmosphere is love. For this reason, from the time we are in the earthly world, we need to develop a spiritual umbilical cord that allows us to breathe the air of love. If we are to avoid death in the spiritual world, we need the instruments to sense and breathe spiritual love.
In the spiritual world, people breathe and live centered on love. A person who fails to develop a complete character of love will be limited in his movements. This person will not be able to move freely. If there are several gates, for example, he may be allowed to enter through only one gate. If a person wants to be able to accommodate himself to any season, any place, or any time, he needs to develop a character of perfect love. This is how human beings were created to live through three periods.
The dragonfly lives first as a larva, swimming around in water. Then it climbs onto land and crawls around for a time. Finally, it starts to fly around, and begins catching and eating bugs that it would never have imagined eating on land. It flies around with the world as its stage. There are many insects that have wings and go through three stages, living in water, then on land, and finally in the air. Human beings, who are the highest being of creation, have wings of a higher dimension.
We are born in love, live in love, and give birth to sons and daughters through love as God's representative. Eventually, we reach the resting place of love, and return to God so that we may live eternally in His presence. In other words, our lives begin in love, ripen in love, and are finally harvested as the fruits of love. When a person dies, he harvests the fruits of his love.
During our lives, we receive the love of our parents, share love with our husband or wife, and give love to our children, bringing to fruition all the seeds of God's love sown in the internal world of love. Eventually, we harvest this fruit and go into the next world. So when we become completely one in love, we come to resemble God. If a husband and wife work together to completely accomplish the three stages of love and then go to the spiritual world, they will exist eternally as Gods, in a reciprocal relationship with God, who is the eternal subject. That is what happens when a husband and wife die centering on love. We begin and end in God.
The reason people have to die is that their love is limited as long as they are in their physical bodies. The physical body is inadequate for developing the real power of an object partner to God's unlimited love. This is why we must be transformed into a spirit, which is invisible.
Furthermore, we die so that we can become one with the ideal of love, together with all of heaven and earth. Therefore death is not a path to suffering, but is a time when the gate of happiness is thrown open, enabling us to possess cosmic love.
To die means to move from a world of land, where we crawl and walk, to a world where we fly freely. We pass through death in order to become qualified travelers who, with love, can enjoy the entire universe. That is why death is, in reality, a new birth.
We started out in our mother's womb. The womb was the first world in which we were nurtured. When we were born, we separated from this world and entered a new world. Likewise, in death the spirit self cuts off and flies away from the physical body, which is like its womb. Thus, it can be said that human beings pass through a world of water, a world of land, and a world of air, where they come to live in the eternal world of love.
In the spirit world, love is the life element. As long as your command is given through love, anything you say will be accomplished immediately and nothing will be impossible. Even if a billion people say they want to have dinner, the appropriate meal can be prepared and the feast can be ready in an instant. If all the guests say they want to become princes and princesses, then everyone will indeed be turned into princes and princesses. This actually would be possible. So now that you know these things, would you like to live here on Earth, or go to the other world? When we are in the womb, we think the womb is the best place to be. We just spend our time kicking. If someone were to try pulling us out midway through, we wouldn't like it at all. Then, it is like dying and coming back to life, when it is finally time to come out of the womb. In the same way, we die and then come back to life through our physical death. Therefore, death is actually a second birth.
Ladies and gentlemen, our life course is not a smooth path. This is because human beings fell.
Because we were born with a connection to the Fall, it is our fate to pass through the course of resentment that resulted from the Fall. We must pass through this even if it takes a historical course of thousands or even tens of thousands of years. Otherwise, this path of resentment will remain with us forever.
When Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden, the condition of unhappiness for humankind began. Thus we need to break out of this unhappy world in order for humanity to return to the world of happiness. Otherwise, no one can return to the world of happiness.
The Fall of the original human ancestors did not result in misery only for human beings. God, also, suffered misery. For this reason, we do not dedicate our lives only to the accomplishment of the ideal world. An even more important goal for our lives is to clear away the sorrow and agony in the heart of God, who is the origin of all life. Thus, when human beings finally attain happiness, then God, too, will be happy. God and humankind have gone through the course of history in the same situation, pursuing the same goal.
As a result of losing Adam and Eve, God has walked the most difficult path, a path that no one would choose to walk. Human beings, too, have walked this inevitable path of destiny brought about by the Fall, always hoping for the coming day of salvation.
Humankind's most fervent hope in relation to God is to become His sons and daughters. This is because no relationship is more intimate than that of parent and child.
We were born when the love and life of our parents converged, and thus we represent their ideals. But words like love and ideals never refer to just one person. Life cannot be created by one person alone, but must come from a love relationship between husband and wife. So when God created humankind, He created us to be the object partners of His love, His life and His ideals. This is amazing and incredible.
If I did not exist, my parents' love could not become visible. The love, life, and ideals of my parents exist in relation to me. I am the fruit of my parents' love, life, and ideals. That is why the child's position is the most precious of all.
It is remarkable that my parents and I started from a point where my parents' love is my love, my parents' life is my life, and my parents' ideals are my ideals. That is why parents look at their children and say, "These are the sons and daughters we love." Parents sense, realize, and know that their children are the substantiation of their love, their lives, and their hopes. Patents cannot pass a single day without missing their beloved sons and daughters. Even if it has been only a few minutes since they last saw them, they want to see them again, Even if someone were to try to sever this relationship, it could never be broken, for children are the bone of their bones and the flesh of their fleshes. If children disappear, parents feel as though they may die. All their ideals depend on their children.
Even parents, who were born into a world where they are deprived of true love, true life, and true ideals due to the fall, know what it is like to love their children like this. How much more, then, must this be true for God, who is the subject of these parents.
Had Adam and Eve not fallen, they would have been the children of God's direct lineage, and His royal descendants. That is, Adam and Eve were the prince and princess who stood to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven in the spiritual world and an Earth. At the same time, because they were created as the object partners to the invisible God, who is the subject partner, Adam and Eve were substantial beings who could receive His love. They were substantial manifestations of the invisible God.
It is the special privilege of a child of God to say, "God is mine. All that is His is also mine, even His love, His life and His ideals are mine." It is up to human beings to recover this amazing and incredible value that was originally ours.
If God is the subject partner in love, and exists eternally, then the reciprocal partners of His love must also exist eternally. When I become one with Gods love, God becomes me.
Had Adam and Eve not fallen, their bodies would have been the homes where God could dwell. They would have placed God at the center of their hearts and become entities of love, life, and lineage who were qualified eternally through true love. If they had done this, our minds and bodies would not be in conflict today.
The Fall meant that we inherited the life and lineage of evil, centering on evil love, we were born from false parents. We, therefore, have to rebuild the lineage. We have to take the false olive tree and change it into a true olive tree. To do this, we should be grafted onto the true olive tree, go through at least three generations, and produce the fruit that becomes the true olive tree representing the original standard. Only then will fallen human beings be restored to the original state. That is when the Providence of Salvation will be completed.
In this way, God is trying to make human beings become children of parents of goodness, centering on love that is one with Him. This is why He sends the Messiah to the Earth as True Parents. The Messiah is the one who comes to purify the lineage of humankind and establish the original ideal of creation.
All people desire to be the best. We want to be the sons and daughters of God -- God's princes and princesses, heirs to His kingship. Everyone has this original desire. But because we have inherited a different lineage, we lament at our birth, lament over our lives and lament as we die. This is why we say that life is an ocean of suffering.
Thus, it is important to know how to end the struggle between our mind and body and unify them as one. A person who cannot unify his own mind and body will not be able to play any role in unifying his nation (North and South Korea), the world, or the spiritual world.
Once a subject partner and object partner form a reciprocal relationship, they need to become one with an even greater entity. Once a man and woman become one as reciprocal partners, that couple should become a greater subject or object partner to their nation as patriots. Likewise, a patriot, who becomes an even greater subject or object partner on the world level, will be grafted onto the way of the saint. A saint should become a greater subject or object partner on the cosmic level and be grafted onto the way of divine sons and daughters. It is only after we have achieved the way of divine sons and daughters that we can be grafted onto God.
We have the desire to develop and to have that which is greater in value. We have a predestined course that we are ignorant of. The desires of our heart respond receptively to the movements of the original way of heaven. However, because we do not know how to fulfill these desires, there is suffering and people find themselves groaning in agony. In the last days, many will become discouraged because they are unable to find this path, even with great effort. As a result, we see an increasing trend toward suicide. We must find a way to overcome these things somehow.
Before seeking to excel on the world stage, humankind should have first excelled in the original family of Adam and Eve. Had Adam and Eve taken their places as lineal prince and princess before God, they would have been the most exalted among all of men and women. They, however, fell and lost their entitled positions of the elder son and daughter, the crown prince and princess. This tragedy has remained throughout human history. That is why humankind has traveled a path of life in search of the positions of first son and first daughter so that we might recover God's true love.
If we are to receive His true love, we cannot live selfishly centering on our own selves. Instead, we should live for the sake of God and humankind as our brothers and sisters. The more a person sheds blood and tears for her brothers and sisters in place of her parents, the deeper, wider and higher will be the love she receives. This is the kind of son and daughter we must become if we are to inherit everything from our parents. Every man and woman must go this path. Even if we have to face death ten times or a hundred times, we must continue our search for God's true love. This is the supreme path of life.
The Divine Principle of the Unification Church teaches that the Fall occurred when human beings left the realm of God's true love. Restoration means to return to that realm. When a person enters the realm of such love, he can merely look at his body and praise it, tens of thousand of times. In that world, you know that your own body is one that receives God's true love. Words cannot express such joy. This kind of wonderful world is called the Kingdom of Heaven.
On the day that the hearts of men and women can take hold of God's true love. We will be inspired to sing and dance for tens of thousands of years. The state of intoxication with God's true love is so wonderful that alcohol or drugs cannot even be compared. A person can call on any being under heaven and it will respond. Just the sight of water flowing in a river will inspire us to sing for a thousand years. In Heaven, even a simple whisper will have unfathomed tenderness. Everything will have been accomplished, so there would be no need for gold, treasure or anything else. From this perspective, the value of human beings is that we are in the position of masters who can commune with the universe through true love and the sensation of love. Fulfilling this is the path of life, which humanity must travel.
Until now, people knew relatively little about the spiritual world. It is a world where people are recognized depending on how closely one followed God's principle of existence -- the principle of living for the sake of others. A world built on this content is the ideal Kingdom of Heaven.
This is the original homeland that all humankind must search after. Today, we live as fallen people, who have been expelled from out homeland, so it is our destiny to return there. However, we cannot do this on our own.
God has worked through history to resolve this problem by establishing numerous religions in accordance with the different cultural backgrounds, customs, and traditions of various nations. He has done this so that human beings would have a path to lead them back. Religion is the training ground where we can cultivate the qualifications that enable us to return to our homeland. In accordance with the cultural background of each region, God is guiding us toward one unified world of religion that can advance us to a higher ground.
Since religion is supposed to lead us to this homeland, it has to teach us to live for others. The more advanced a religion is, the more it emphasizes the principle of living for others, as well as humility and modesty. Religion teaches us to exalt all people and to stand in a position of living for others in service, and sacrifice.
Let us make the new millennium an age of true peace and true ideals in which people will practice the way of true love. I hope we will recover the value of true, original human beings centered on God, establish true families, and live for others eternally, centering on God and the True Parents.
May your families and country be filled with an even greater abundance of God's love and blessings. Thank you very much.
